Me too, I left Web development when node and npm were learning to crawl, given how things went in WinRT and Android world, I ended up refocusing on Web.
So when I got back I couldn't believe how bad the experience became versus SSR frameworks, and gladly focused on backend and devops stuff instead.
> So when I got back I couldn't believe how bad the experience became
Like frogs in a slowly boiling pot, most full time js devs have no idea the shit they put up with. IMHO modern js frameworks suffer from complexity rot; they are so over engineered it is a sad joke.
So when I got back I couldn't believe how bad the experience became versus SSR frameworks, and gladly focused on backend and devops stuff instead.
It is refreshing to see this starting to happen.